As we near the end of JAMuary, where we celebrate our monthly donors, we’d like to introduce you to one of them: Liza Piper!
Liza discovered CKUA in a unique fashion. It was 2004. She was working on a PhD in Canadian History at York University in Toronto.
She came to Alberta on a research trip and among a local conservationist’s papers, found a CKUA radio lecture by William Rowan, founder of University of Alberta’s department of zoology. It was called RABBITS.
“Finding a radio lecture like that was unusual enough that the radio station name ‘CKUA’ stuck in my brain,” she says.
A few years later, she was hired at the U of A and moved to Edmonton. A few years after that, she and her partner Zac had their first baby, who was having trouble sleeping.
“In search of good music to soothe the little guy, I rediscovered CKUA,” Liza says. “But it was my partner who got hooked first with your Dead Ends and Detours show, the only one of its kind in his experience.”
“By the time our second child was born, CKUA was where the radio dial in our kitchen was set and it has stayed there ever since.”
It’s a combination of things that keeps them listening, she says. “We love the breadth of music on CKUA and how it is always leading us to new musical discoveries. Not to mention the skills of your amazing hosts – like Grant Stovel’s expertise with the morning show and finding the right balance of energy and calm.”
Now CKUA goes where they go.
“CKUA travels with us on road trips through Alberta. We keep the other frequencies – in Red Deer, Canmore, and beyond, programmed into our car radio. A few years ago, I was back in Halifax helping to care for a sick family member. Keeping ckua.com playing helped me deal with the stress and sadness that comes on that kind of a visit.”
Liza’s favourite show is The Bluegrass Hour with Darcy Whiteside. “But my favourite time to listen to CKUA is first thing on weekend mornings before anyone else has woken up.”
This Edmonton historian and mom loves to spend time outdoors with her family, including walking, cross-country skiing or skating. And she loves being a CKUA monthly donor.
“The first time I heard the story about CKUA going off the air, it really resonated with me as an historian,” she says, of the station going off the air suddenly in the middle of the night. “And then the clincher: that from the ashes rose a community-supported radio station – that was a story and a community that I want to be part of all the time, not just once in a while.”
“Not to mention that we listen to CKUA so much, I feel it’s only right that we should pay for the privilege and to help share the station with everyone who wants to listen. Being a monthly donor is a way that we can help ensure that CKUA will thrive for the next generation of newcomers to Alberta to discover.”
“I think of it like a subscription – like subscribing to a news site or a streaming service. Given that you can set the amount of your monthly donation according to what you want to pay, it is in the end one of the best deals out there.”
Thanks for your support of CKUA, Liza! Interested in becoming a monthly donor yourself? Learn more here.
Liza’s jam is Whitehorse’s cover of “Gun Street Girl.”
